slammed NB miata!

[tscharf18]

I picked up a 2001 miata about 8 months ago for $5k with low miles just a dd with no huge plans to do anything to it until I saw some of the stanced miatas on here and other sites then I was convinced to make it into something unique. heres a pic of the car the day I bought it.[IMG][/IMG]

and heres what it looks like today

[tscharf18]

next thing on my list was coilovers and wheels, I was on a budget at the time so I went with raceland coilovers, I figured they were worth getting for $320 brand new so I went ahead and ordered them, while waiting for them to arrive I received my rims, I went with XXR 002 16x8 et0 and I put 205/40/16 falken 512's on them because I heard they stretched pretty well

[tscharf18]

I decided to throw on the wheels and tires before I got the coilovers to see how they would sit with the fenders...check out that wheel gap!

[BADwayz]

You can put all this in one post, ya know.

[tscharf18]

coilovers came in so I decided to get some friends together to install them, didnt know they didnt even come with tophats so we had to go rent a spring compressor to remove the stock tophats from the oem coils and put them on the racelands, also on the threads on the racelands there was what one of my friends said was a "tig overspray" so I couldnt lower one of the coils so I had to have that friend get in the threads with a fine dremel and clean out all of the threads so that I could set them all to the same height, big pain in the ass so what should have taken about 2-3 hours took about 6 hrs with all the trips to orielly for the spring compressor and cleaning out the threads. finally I got them on and this is how it sat after the install and a little height adjustment

after a few days of driving the spring started to settle and it started rubbing pretty bad in the rear and I found out it was the mounts that hold the rear bumper to the back fenders so I did some modification and cut them off and make some "jdm" ziptie mounts to hold the bumper from the inside so that they couldnt be seen from the outside
also the collars were hitting the cv axle at the current height so I had to raise them a few threads to clear the axle


I ordered the boss frog single hoop double diagonal roll bar knowing that it was one of the only rollbars I liked that would fit under the oem soft top with the glass window, I decided to order it unfinished because I was planning on painting it to match the bronze wheels

as you can see I dont have alot of paint supplies like stands so I just decided to use moving tubs and do it in my backyard



recently I was at a car meet in lake forest and some kid in his parent funded prerunner didnt see my miata parked right infront of his truck and he put in in drive and drove his skidplate right onto my bumper/hood

after a couple days of dealing with the kids parents about the settlement, I had gotten a few quotes that were all between $1600-$2600, we decided on $1800 cash so that it wouldnt go on the kids driving record. Ive never done any body work or worked with bondo before but I decided to try and save the bumper and hood and try and do the bodywork myself that way I would have enough money to get the whole car repainted a different color.


I also decided to debadge the whole car while I was doing the bodywork


bodywork came out pretty good considering ive never done any type of bodywork in my life, I decided to get the car painted Galaxy Grey Metallic which is a honda OEM color off the 2007 civic si, had the paint done at 1 day paint for $820 which included under hood, trunk, and door jams. here is a shot of it right out of paint while the paint was still drying

here is the area with the bodywork


next thing on my list was to repaint the wheels and the rollbar white, I was hoping to get everything done before slammed society long beach so I just rattlecanned the wheels white and decided to paint the rollbar while it was still in the car because I was trying to get it ready in a couple hours (which didnt end up happening)


finally decided to pick up some real wheels and get off of these XXR's, after alot of shoppping around I narrowed it down to Work meisters, ssr professor ms1, and BBS RS....I went to a wheel wharehouse in city of industry called VR Wheels that specializes in jdm wheels and modifying them to your specifications, place was pretty nuts and had a pretty good selection of any wheel you could ever imagine

after visiting VR wheels I decided on BBS RS and after talking to the guys there they were going to make them for me in 16x9 et 9 3" lip for the rears and 16x9 et21 2.5" lip for the fronts and they were going to powdercoat the faces white for me....I out in the order and they said it would take 3 weeks to make them exactly how I wanted, I got a call from them a week and a half later saying they were done. the lips were brand new but you could tell the barrels were used and the hex caps that they came with were a little scuffed up but not that bad, overall they came out really nice for $1800

I want to go a good amount lower but its not possible on the racelands because they are way too soft so I ordered BC BR extreme lows today with 10k/8k springrates and they should be here in a couple weeks then I will set my stance and take some good pics to upload...
thats all for now!

[Ant Man]

WOW, what a transformation! looks great!!

[manbeard]

looks soooooo damn good. i love the color

[hinrichs]

great progress, love the new color, cant wait to see the rs on

[harrybwch]

good

[sally pu]

I like the direction this is traveling in

[Youngthugga]

I wonder why the collars on the ricelands were hitting the axle, I only clear mine by a few mm's but there are people that run them a lot lower (pull helper springs/ extended tophats ect.) who don rub spring or collar, you're getting BC's now (Awesome coils btw) so it doesn't matter. This build got really really awesome towards the end of the last update, keep up the great work man.

[Minuki]

Great progress there man.

Love the new colour.

[FunfGang]

Any pics with the previous color and bronze xxr's? Looking great so far! Just loved that color combo.

[B Rod]

Seems like an excellent deal on the wheels. Cool to see that you were on Racelands and XXRs, and are now upgrading to RSs and BCs! Thanks for keeping it classy and quality.

[motocaddy]

Seems like an excellent deal on the wheels. Cool to see that you were on Racelands and XXRs, and are now upgrading to RSs and BCs! Thanks for keeping it classy and quality.

all of this! great progress and choice of colors. look forward to seeing it all finished!